THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 79 



projected into the open by many an American's 

 "talking machine!" 



Yet even those who entertain the kindest feelings 

 toward the Mexican must perforce acknowledge 

 that the race possesses certain trying character- 

 istics. (What of our own race? Is it free from 

 human blemish?) To me, personally, the Mexican 

 girl, and in a lesser degree the boy, is but in one 

 respect exasperating beyond endurance. No matter 

 how dependable, intelligent and sensible one's hand- 

 maiden may be as a soloist, let company in the shape 

 of visiting girl friends arrive, and she drops every- 

 thing, throws courtesy and decency to the winds 

 and becomes for the nonce a giggling, nay gibber- 

 ing idiot. The house may burn down for all she 

 cares, this dependable maiden, and she runs shriek- 

 ing off with her friends, to return onlv when the 

 crazy spell has spent itself. It is well, therefore, to 

 accord her gratefully all the "afternoons off" she 

 desires, for thus may you be sure of peace in your 

 home. This stricture applies solely to the "edu- 

 cated" Mexican; in former davs home training pre- 

 vailed in the Mexican adobe, and such discourtes- 

 ies were unknown. 



It must be persistently repeated, for it is so often 

 forgotten, that in ancient and alien races there are 

 depths that no mere modern white person can ever 

 hope to sound, subconscious memories and heritages 

 which shape our efforts to their ends, not to ours. 

 But when time, opportunity and financial conditions 

 permit, the mass of Mexican peons with whom we 

 are so closely associated will undoubtedly become 



